Ambulans Mortuus
by The Vengeful Sinner
Summary: An ancient evil that has slumbered for thousands of years has been unleashed. As the evil spreads across the land, it not only brings death and destruction, but a fate far worse than death. As the world's systems collapse, Naruto and his companions must adapt to these events. But one question remains, will they survive to the very end? Or are they fated to die a horrible death?
1. The Beginning of the End

**Hello fellow Fanfiction readers and writers! I have returned with a second fanfic! This is something I thought about three years ago but I never attempted it until now and I have decided that this will be my first proper Naruto fic (no crossover). My Assassin's Creed crossover, The Forgotten Creed: Rise of the Templars, will have an update at the end of January (I'm busy right now, so it's been hard concentrating). I also have three other fanfic projects planned (each vastly unique) that I have started jotting ideas down for so I can write them over the next few years. Trust me, I will try and dedicate myself to actually completing my fics and not disappoint any readers as I have felt the same many times whilst reading man Fanfictions on this site. It sucks seeing an incredibly good story abandoned or on a very long hiatus before it has been completed, especially when it's stopped on a cliffhanger or just before a major plot twist. I'm being a hypocrite because my first fic was on a year-hiatus but I decided to try and keep updating more regularly.**

**But, I suppose that you can't really do anything since I've noticed that a lot of fanfiction writers do have incredibly stressful and busy lives, such as myself. So, if you enjoy any of my fics or someone else's, please leave a review, a favourite or a follow as these tiny things can easily lighten up our days. Thank you!**

**Anyway, on with the story!**

**Notes for this story:**

**-Warning: This will be dark, with blood, gore and swearing**

**-AU, as there are some differences compared to the canon plotline. It will mostly be canon until just after the Hidan and Kakuzu arc.**

**-Some OoC and possible OCs**

**-For the sake of my mental health, I will not use Japanese names for the jutsus, because quite frankly, my translating skills are crap**

**(X)+++(X)**

Deep down in the heart of Otogakure, an evil chuckle could be heard from one of the office rooms.

Standing over a considerably old and fragile scroll was the infamous Snake Sannin and traitor of Konoha, Orochimaru. The man's face was twisted into an expression of great pleasure at his recent discoveries.

"Kukukukuku, I would have never expected Konoha's Nidaime to hide information such as this," Orochimaru said to himself, analysing the contents of the Nidaime's scroll.

The scroll had been "collected" from Tobirama Senju's private storage, hidden in the Hokage's Eyes-Only section of the Konoha Archives, during the invasion of Konoha. The fools did not realise that a clone had infiltrated the archives during the chaos.

However, Orochimaru had soon become frustrated after he realised that the scroll was protected by a complicated blood seal. It seemed that Tobirama had keyed Senju DNA as the only way to deactivate the extensive seal array.

He had, at first, contemplated using Hashirama's DNA but had decided against it as the DNA could serve more useful purposes and he had instead decided to use the blood of his teammate, Tsunade Senju. That had been one of the many reasons as to why he had confronted her at Tanzaku-gai.

The scroll described a series of experiments and events that were classified under the name, Project Ambulans Mortuus, or Project AM for short.

It was indeed fascinating to read the detailed accounts of the Nidaime Hokage whilst he had been creating a jutsu that could resurrect the dead, Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu being the brainchild of this project. However, the Nidaime Hokage had not been without a few alternative methods. Some were downright impossible to accomplish but the one that truly interested Orochimaru was a side project codenamed "Zombi". Notes in this section were quite vague and suggested failure but what the Nidaime had written in his accounts of the events of Zombi interested Orochimaru.

The Nidaime Hokage had apparently heard rumours of an underground area that had been discovered somewhere along the coastal region of Hi no Kuni that faced Uzu no Kuni. The explorers who had found this location entered but no one had ever returned. Their equipment had been found nearby but no one attempted to enter the cave, fearing that it was cursed. Tobirama had been sceptical at first but he had eventually decided to track down the location of the cavern and had depended on various sources to find it. He did eventually find the cavern and the entrance was a small one-man hole. If someone had no intent on finding a cavern in the area, they would have most likely never spotted the hole.

Determined to seek answers and also learn of the fate of the explorers, the Nidaime had travelled alone down the cavern but had not specified clearly what he saw in his scroll.

_It is best I do not describe what I have seen, but one thing remains clear, if a Hell were to exist on this planet, I would not be surprised if the cavern was the gateway._

A shiver went down Orochimaru's spine after reading that section. The way the Nidaime had described his experiences alarmed the Snake Sannin and it had made him fearful of what to expect in the cavern. But at the same time, it had sparked a curiosity to witness what the Nidaime Hokage had discovered.

_My time in that kami-forsaken cavern may have very well ended with my unfortunate demise. The place has an aura of doom that struck fear into my heart. While I may not be the most superstitious person on the block, the cavern was a home to monstrosities that not even I had known existed and I was forced to attempt an eradication of the beasts so they would be of no threat in the future, however, I did not succeed in my task as they almost overwhelmed me on numerous occasions and I was forced to flee. Once I escaped, I decided to block of the entrance so no other person could stumble upon that place and accidentally unleash the horrors to the world. Besides that incident, the only time I have ever come close to death was my last fight with Izuna Uchiha, the slimy bastard of a son of Tajima Uchiha, and he had almost sliced my head clean off. I am glad that I was able to rid the planet of such a twisted demon. He was the one responsible for Kawarama and Itama's death. Deep down inside, I had wished that the unification of the Senju and Uchiha clans and the formation of Konoha would not cause more chaos and take away even more of the people I cherish, but unfortunately Hashirama soon passed away after his fight with Madara and the Senju Clan also diminished in size, many dying in battles or assimilating into other Konoha clans, while the Uchiha clan continued to grow. Because of this, I desired to see my precious ones again and to also resurrect the deceased members of the Senju Clan and rebuild it to its original status. And for this reason, it is why I have devoted my life to developing a perfect resurrection jutsu."_

Orochimaru was definitely surprised by the reasoning behind the origin of Project AM. He had not expected a realist like the Nidaime to have such idealistic motives and expectations. It seemed that the Nidaime was not the person that everyone believed he was.

Tobirama had later mentioned that he had managed to take a few samples of flesh and blood o the beasts inside the cavern, but the Senju had decided to stop the experiments as the results all ended with a failure and deemed side-project Zombi as a great threat to the safety of many nations.

Tobirama's final account went like this,

_After years of attempting to create a perfect resurrection jutsu, I have decided that the best I could do was the Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu which has many flaws. One is the use of soul sacrifices, something that is vile in nature and should never be attempted ever again, adding to my many regrets in life. The Jutsu completely consumes the soul of the victim whose body is used, damning them to oblivion and to never find peace. It was a mass murderer's soul that was consumed, but should a man's crime deem it acceptable to send him to a fate far worse than death? Another flaw is that the people who are resurrected are not classified as humans, as they are no more than look-a-like mannequins made of dust. They are also not happy to be summoned to the plane of the living as I summoned my brother, Hashirama, who I was happy to see as was he but he told me that everyone was much happier in the afterlife and should stay that way, hoping that one day I can meet him again there. Because of this, I have decided to let my idealistic ambitions go and let bygones be bygones. I cannot fix the mistakes of my past nor can I look into the future, but I must stay focused in the present to protect the few people left in my life and to never let Konoha's Will of Fire to burn out. _

Orochimaru had been fascinated by what the man read, even if he despised Konoha with a passion. There was a reason why the man had so much respect, and now he knew why. But Orochimaru had become incredibly curious when the Nidaime had mentioned the possibility of a large threat to the shinobi world lingering in the cavern.

And after much planning, he had decided to locate the cavern and see what was inside for himself.

**Two years and 9 months later**

Orochimaru had sent a team of shinobi to locate the cavern and after nearly three years of sweeping the whole eastern coastline of Hi no Kuni, they had managed to locate the cavern after one of his shinobi had spotted some several out-of-place rocks that were firmly clumped together, which, when moved, revealed a hole in the earth.

The Snake Sannin had been incredibly pleased with this discovery, and once he had arrived at the location, he had decided to send three of his shinobi down first as a precaution.

The three were given exactly 4 hours to search the caverns and come back to the surface with a status report, but when none of them returned, Orochimaru had decided to go in himself, prepared for the worst.

He had become slightly alarmed by the overwhelming scent of decay and fresh blood, but what unnerved him was the sense of doom, much like the Nidaime had mentioned in the scroll.

As Orochimaru's eyes adjusted quickly to the dark, he quietly went down the long one way path of a tunnel. Any sound that was made ahead of him put Orochimaru on edge as he continued down the path.

It had been a good five minutes or so before he had found his first clue as to why the Nidaime had warned people from exploring this cavern; he found the shinobi that he had sent in.

But the state of the three shinobi shocked Orochimaru. Two shinobi had their heads ripped off and squished; the third had his head ripped in half, exposing a decimated brain, which leaked out slowly. All three had been bisected at the waist, their entrails spilling out all over the floor of the narrow corridor-like pathway. There was an incredibly amount of blood all over the place and the expressions on their faces were ones of absolute horror and pain. But what both intrigued and disturbed Orochimaru were the bite marks that completely covered their bodies.

Orochimaru couldn't help but tense. 'What could be lurking down the end of this tunnel?'

He continued down the one way path and finally arrived in area that overlooked a cavern, but he had decided to hide himself before he had peered out.

What he saw caused him to freeze in genuine fear as he looked around the cavern.

Hundreds of black creatures were roaming aimlessly around in the cavern, hissing and bumping into each other. They were all skinny, tall and looked incredibly skeleton-like. The cold lifeless red eyes, salivating mouths twisted into a permanent snarl and their yellow and black chipped teeth was the perfect combo for nightmare fuel.

He noted that the cavern was incredibly large and he realised how small the group of creatures was compared to the size of the cavern. 'Was this cavern full when the Nidaime Hokage was here?'

Orochimaru could only shiver, imagining thousands of these creatures all clumped into this cavern, and was thankful that the Nidaime had destroyed most of these creatures.

Orochimaru contemplated on leaving these creatures be at first but his urge to catch a specimen and experiment on it was too great so he did something that was essentially the equivalent of kicking a large proverbial wasp's nest.

Orochimaru produced a clone and both went through a series of hand seals.

"**Wind Release: Great Breakthrough"**

"**Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet"**

The two jutsus merged as both Orochimaru and his clone used the right ratio of each elemental chakra to properly fuel and enhance the combination attack.

The black creatures shrieked and hissed in anger as many of them were engulfed by flames, but it seemed that they were oblivious to the pain or the fact that they were burning as they started to advance on Orochimaru. He smirked as one by one, the black creatures perished from their prolonged contact with fire, turning them into smouldering corpses that would soon turn to ash. The remaining black creatures ignored their fellow creature's deaths and continued to run towards Orochimaru's position.

The man could only smile as he pulled out Kusanagi, with this sword in hand, he was invincible.

One by one, the creatures' heads were cleanly cut off as Orochimaru danced around with his infamous weapon.

It had been a lot harder than Orochimaru had anticipated as the creatures were fast and strong, which Orochimaru was surprised by, considering the creatures' weak appearance.

Fortunately, he had managed to kill every single one of them, except for three that were caught in their own separate earth coffins, a stasis seal placed on each one of the coffins to stop any movement inside.

Orochimaru looked around the cavern one last time, satisfied by the mass of burning or decapitated corpses of the black creatures, before he sealed the three coffins into a sealing scroll and started his journey up to the surface where the Oto shinobi who had been ordered to standby were surrounding the hole. They bowed at his feet and he smirked, ordering them to follow him closely behind as they began their swift journey back to Otogakure.

**Otogakure Base**

Orochimaru laughed maniacally as he glared with satisfaction at the three chambers, whilst hearing the banging and hissing noises made by the three demonic beasts. A small glass window on each chamber showed the creatures running around, bashing at the walls or scratching at them with their sharp nails, trying to escape. Orochimaru knew what these monstrosities could do to a human being after seeing the three unfortunate shinobis' mutilated bodies in the cavern, and he would have to take caution to minimalise the chance of there being any severe incidents.

"Kukukukukuku, the potential of these creatures at the palm of my hands. I will be unstoppable and one step closer to immortality!"

**Months later**

Orochimaru and his scientists had run many tests on the creatures, discovering many shocking revelations. The creatures were classified as the undead as they had no pulse or heartbeat whatsoever, their blood and saliva had the capability to turn humans and mammals into undead monsters, and last of all, they had a desire for human flesh and causing destruction.

However, Orochimaru never had the chance to fully test out all their abilities as his time was cut short by his apprentice, Sasuke Uchiha.

After Sasuke had killed Orochimaru, he had decided to disrupt the Otogakure base's operations by destroying their main power generators, which would take months or even years to repair.

But the moment Sasuke made his choice, he would soon realise in the near future that this had been a very grave mistake.

The chambers that held the creatures at bay were powered by the main generators and after they were destroyed, the backup generators had started to kick in.

However, by the time the backup generators had run out of juice, the base had been abandoned and there was no one to monitor the creatures.

Their only goals were to infect, eat and destroy.

And they had just escaped their prisons, without any resistance.

The moment they surfaced, one thing was apparent to the shinobi world.

It was now…the beginning of the end.

**(X)+++(X)**

**First chapter of my new fic done! See you next chapter!**


	2. Level 5

**Not many people have noticed this story, but it's the price I pay for making it M-rated. Some parts of this chapter gave me the ****heebie-jeebies when writing and having those images in my mind was quite disturbing that it made me lose my appetite at some parts.**

**Forgot to place a disclaimer on the first chapter: I do not own Naruto at all, and I won't repeat it again. I will never own Naruto and I don't plan on wanting to. Masashi Kishimoto already does a good enough job with the series.**

**(X)+++(X)**

A cold silence managed to suck all the happiness in the room.

Naruto Uzumaki covered himself in his ragged paper-thin blanket, shivering as he stared at his door, hoping that someone would barge in to save the day and get him out of his hellhole of an apartment room.

He was only sixteen, yet it had only been a few weeks since he had fought the S-rank Akatsuki member, Kakuzu, a man that had four hearts, each representing one of the four elemental affinities of fire, wind, lightning and earth. It was only with the use of a new jutsu, Fuuton: Rasenshuriken, that Naruto was able to defeat Kakuzu, causing damage to his arm and Kakuzu's body at a cellular level.

Shikamaru had been the one to defeat Hidan, and rightly so, burying the crazy three-bladed scythe wielding Jashinist under a pile of rubble and debris, leaving him to rot for eternity. It was the only fate that the crazed sadist deserved. Shikamaru had been pleased that his sensei, Asuma, hadn't died in vain.

But Naruto continued to lie down on his bed wearing a white shirt with the orange Konoha symbol, orange boxers that had smiling green frogs all around and his trusty nightcap, staring at the door tensely.

He had a nagging feeling that something would happen in Konoha, over the past week or so. The feeling suggested something bad, something really, really bad. He rose from his bed and walked straight to the door. Unbolting it, he grabbed hold of the doorknob and took a deep breath before slowly turning it. There was sweat pouring down his forehead as he tilted his head slightly to the side, peeking through the crack of the door but seeing nothing. Only a cool but faint breeze brushed lightly against his sweat covered skin. The trees rustled and the occasional owl hooted softly.

Nothing was out of the ordinary and it seemed that it was just a plain old night in Konoha village.

'There's nothing wrong, but why do I have feeling that it's not safe to be in this village anymore?' Naruto thought as he closed the door and climbed into his bed. Slowly drifting asleep, he tried to nudge aside the uncomfortable feelings that were residing in his mind.

**The Next Day**

Naruto slowly opened his eyes and looked around. Nothing had happened throughout the night. However, the weather looked grim. There were dark thunderclouds looming across Konoha's skies and the smell of rain drifted through his partially opened window. He yawned and stretched his stiff body as he walked to his wardrobe to grab hold of his normal attire, consisting of an orange and black jacket, orange pants and black sandals.

As the last of his clothes were put on, he walked into his apartment room kitchen and started to boil some water. He needed some ramen to calm down his nerves, pouring some water into a pot and placed it on the stove, turning it on.

As he waited for the water to boil, he opened his near-empty fridge and grabbed out some milk. Luckily the milk wasn't expired because he already had a fair share of stomach cramps from drinking outdated milk.

Grabbing an instant ramen cup and slowly pouring the hot water, he fumbled as he heard several loud thuds on his door and muffled screams from outside. Naruto's clumsy attempt to stop the water pouring had only caused more to pour down onto his lap.

"Shit!" He screamed out loudly as he tried to wipe away the hot water. After the mess was cleaned, he grabbed his kunai and shuriken pockets before he ran out the door, sucking in large amounts of ramen as he left.

He stopped in front of his door, looking down from the balcony to see a bunch of kids fighting after one of them had kicked the football at Naruto's door. He grumbled as he threw the ball back and yelled at the kids to aim better before kicking it next time.

Naruto grumbled as he went back into his apartment and threw the ramen cup away. _'Damn, when did I become such a grouch?'_

As he walked out, he noticed that a lot of people were hiding under the roofs of the shops or walking around with closed umbrellas, anticipating the horrible weather.

'_Damn! Does this day have to get even more depressing?'_ Naruto grumbled to himself as he passed Hinata and Ino in a pastry shop.

Hinata looked over at Naruto, who waved at her, only inciting a squeal and a blush, confusing the blonde-haired genin.

'_Okay then…'_ Naruto thought, confused by Hinata's reaction before he gave up trying to understand the mysteries of the female gender and continued down the road, noticing several of his friends shopping or lounging around talking.

Sakura, Shikamaru and Neji were sitting at an outdoor table of a restaurant talking, when Naruto decided to butt into their conversation. "Yo, guys! Wassup!"

All three of them stared at him gravely, which made Naruto frown and mumble to himself, "Geez, bunch of hard-asses sitting around being…well, hard-asses…so what's happening around Konoha that's causing such a depressing mood?"

Sakura looked at Naruto grimly, "Didn't you hear?"

Naruto frowned at Sakura's grim attitude, "Er…what?"

"A village near Konoha burnt down, and most of the villagers were massacred," Sakura said as she looked down sadly, "And Ami and Kasumi didn't make it out of that village in time. They were found dead, ripped apart to pieces, just like all the other villagers who were slaughtered."

Naruto shifted awkwardly, "Ami and Kasumi? Who were…oh yeah, those two…oh…well that sucks, but I didn't really know them though."

Sakura sighed loudly as she looked at him with sad eyes, "They bullied me during our time in the academy, but that doesn't mean they deserve something like this. What kind of monster could do something like this?"

Naruto couldn't think of an answer. If he did have an answer, he would have most likely never shared it with Sakura, so that she wouldn't become even more depressed.

Neji frowned, "So, what will become of the survivors?"

Sakura looked at Neji and answered, "The Konoha shinobi that found them in the ruins of the village managed to save some of the villagers from being trapped by the burning houses. I think about 27 managed to escape an unfortunate death, but besides that, no one was left standing. Those villagers should be here any moment."

And as if on cue, a group of villagers with tired and traumatised expressions walked down the street raggedly. Their clothes were bloodstained and several had severe wounds that resembled a canine's bite.

All the Konoha citizens passing by either avoided looking in the villager's direction or gave looks of pity. But that's not what the survivors needed. What they needed was medical attention. And one man had suddenly collapsed on the floor in a coughing fit before he passed out.

Sakura jumped up from her seat and ran over to the man, her medic instincts kicking in. She knelt down next to the unconscious man and performed an analysis jutsu; his cells were dying rather quickly and it seemed that the large bite mark on his left hand was causing the problem. Her eyes widened as she saw the man convulse violently and she attempted to use Mystical Palm Jutsu, but to no avail. Her eyes narrowed as several Konoha shinobi jumped down and grabbed the man, "Medic-san, I advise you to stay away from these people. There's something wrong with them."

Sakura snapped, "Of course there's something wrong with them, that's why I'm trying to help, but you aren't doing that man a favour by taking him away from a medic's care."

The shinobi sighed, "We already attempted every medical jutsu we knew on them but nothing seems to work. Their cells are dying at an accelerated rate and we need to get them to the hospital before something serious occurs."

The group of villagers were gestured by the shinobi to hurry their pace, while the shinobi carrying the unconscious man jumped to the roofs and ran straight to the hospital.

Sakura sighed. _'I feel so useless all of sudden, just like back when I was a genin.'_

Sakura smacked her fist into the ground in frustration, cracks forming around the area of impact. She tensed as a hand placed on her shoulder, calming down when she saw who it was.

Shikamaru gave a small smile, reading her body language showing signs of frustration. Most likely from feeling useless, which was one of Sakura's flaws, her insecurities about her appearance and abilities, "Sakura, don't feel so down. You heard what the man said. They've tried every medical jutsu they know. And just because you didn't have a chance to help these people out now, doesn't mean you are useless. On the contrary, you are probably one of the most important people in Konoha with aiding in their survival as Hokage-sama can't help every single patient out."

Sakura smiled back, still shaking from the frustration, but slowly calming down as she began to think more rationally, "Thanks, Shikamaru."

Neji walked over to Sakura, "I think you might have to go to the hospital. There seems to be an influx of people heading towards it."

He pointed over to the direction where the group of survivors had first come from. Everyone's eyes widened as they saw another group of tired and bloodied villagers. These weren't stragglers from the group that gone before.

Shikamaru walked over to one of the shinobi, a jounin, and cleared his throat, "Was there another attack?"

The jounin nodded grimly, "This one was even closer to Konoha's borders. A group of witness's claimed to have seen a tall figure dressed in black jump into the village and completely annihilated everything, slaughtering the men, women and children and some even said that the figure was feasting on the corpse of a baby girl."

Shikamaru blanched at this and looked revolted, "What kind of messed up fucker could do something like that?"

The jounin could only agree, "I don't know, Nara-san. But the thing that attacked the village is obviously beyond help. They might as well consider themselves dead if their only purpose is to cause this much destruction. No one is going to take this issue lightly and there will be cries for the blood of the perpetrator. But these incidents aren't the last of them. There are probably at least a hundred more of these people coming your way. It wasn't just two villages that were attacked, but a whole string of them."

Shikamaru looked over at the tired villagers and couldn't help but shed a tear from the sorrow as he saw a young girl, probably no more than seven years old, with glazed eyes, devoid of all emotions and life. The girl was soaked in blood, her once pretty blue dress, now an ugly shade of red. If one looked closer, they could see dried brain matter all over the girl's clothes.

He noticed that several citizens looked on the verge of fainting, seeing so much of blood.

He also noticed that all these people had bite marks. _'These bite marks; they aren't your ordinary dog bites. There's something…off about them.'_

Shikamaru couldn't do anything besides watch. So he pulled out a cigarette and a lighter, flicking it and lighting his cancer-stick.

He definitely needed something to calm him down.

**The Hospital, Corridor B, Room 1349**

The man Sakura had tried to help earlier was lying quietly on the bed, as a pretty blonde-haired, green-eyed nurse checked him as she measured his readings.

She was shocked when the ECG monitor suddenly signalled that he had flat lined. The nurse checked for his pulse and when she found none, she screamed for assistance, grabbing a defibrillator and charged it up. As the metal device connected with the man's bare chest, the body jumped, but there was no response. The nurse tried a couple of times, until she stopped when the man started groaning and tried to get up from his bed.

The nurse went to the man and tried to softly place him back into the bed, "Sir, I advise that you stay in bed, you've just had a heart attack and you need to re…Sir, please get back into your….why are you looking at me like that…Sir, I advise you to stay…Aaaagghhhh!"

She screamed as the man tackled her to the ground and attempted to bite her throat, when she slapped him with the closest thing in her reach, the defibrillator. She smacked him over the head, knocking him down and she continued to smack down with the defibrillator, sobbing as the man's head caved in, leaking blood all over the floor and her clothing. She fell backwards and continued to sob as she realised that she had just killed a man, but she couldn't help feel nauseated by the foul stench in the air.

"Wait, foul stench?" She asked herself as she leaned closer to the man and realised that his blood was dark red, meaning that he had stopped breathing at some point, "If he stopped breathing, then how come he got up from the bed and lunged at me? Not to mention, that smell of decay coming from him."

As the nurse thought to herself, she didn't notice the door slowly open as a woman stumbled into her room, attracted by the sound of the nurse's screaming. As the nurse heard a gurgle, she saw the woman approach her, but she was too late as the woman fell on top of her and bit her on the shoulder, holding onto her clothes. The nurse kicked the woman off her, who ripped some of her clothes and tore off a chunk of her shoulder flesh. The nurse hissed from the pain.

She quickly got up, but suddenly felt nauseous and almost lost of her balance. She stumbled forwards as the woman who had attacked her grabbed her heel and bit her leg hard.

The nurse desperately tried kicking the woman in the face with her other foot and eventually was released from the woman's grasp, crawling forwards as she tried to get up.

As she limped out of the room and into the hallway, she looked back to check if she was being chased when she ran into a doctor who had been facing away from her.

"Oh kami, thank you! Doc, help me. Two of the patients tried to assault me and one of the managed to bite me," the nurse cried as she grabbed the man's shoulders.

The doctor didn't respond and she shook him, "Doc, I need help!"

The doctor slowly turned around and moaned, making the nurse gasp.

The doctor's neck was ripped out and he was missing parts of his lower jaw. The female nurse vomited before she stumbled backwards, the doctor shambling towards her. As she landed painfully on her rear, she tried to move backwards only to bump into something.

When she looked up, she realised that it was the woman who had attacked her previously.

The nurse gave out one final scream as the doctor and woman grabbed her and began to pull and tug at her body.

She lost consciousness as the two began ripping flesh from her body, another soon joined, a young shinobi who had been infected, who began gnawing away at her fingers.

The pretty nurse woke up. But this time, she felt an overwhelming sensation to eat. Human flesh was the only thought that came to her mind as she growled and got up. Her arm was missing and her throat and most of her guts had been ripped out of her body, but no matter. As long as she had her brain intact, everything would be perfectly fine.

Now, she needed to find something to sate her appetite. Maybe the corpse of a child? Yes, something small and fatty would definitely help.

**Konoha Morgue, located in the basement of the hospital, 30 minutes before the 'Nurse' incident**

Two men wearing protective gearing were given the last delivery of bodies from the nearby villages. They were investigating the cause of death of each individual person, a total of 176 bodies. These bodies were the only ones that had managed to stay intact. The rest had been burnt at the sites themselves as there was no point investigating a pile of guts, bones and flesh.

There were too many bodies for all of them to be given a separate holding station so the bodies were either ungraciously dumped on gurneys, spare tables, or on the floor in piles. The two men were the only ones currently on duty.

News had come to them that multiple people had been bitten and they had to check the bodies to see if the bite marks were responsible for killing the people or something else.

So far, every single body had numerous bite marks or flesh ripped off that could have been from a bite as well as other fatal wounds.

The two shivered at the thought of what could have caused this much damage to the bodies.

"Well, what do you think? Should we report our findings to the seniors now?" One man asked the other.

"I'll do it, give me the stats and the charts and I'll take them upstairs," the other man said as he grabbed a clipboard full of data and opened the morgue entrance door, leading upwards to the hospital.

"Damn it, now I'm stuck with these dead bodies all by myself," the man left behind grumbled as he picked up the body they had been analysing and dumped it into a pile of bodies, "Hmph, this place is definitely the perfect setting for a horror film, hundreds of dead bodies, a lone man, and all we need do now is wait for the dead rotting bodies to reanimate."

The man thought about it for a moment before he started laughing at how stupid the idea sounded, "Honestly, that's just some crazy ass story that people like to tell kids to scare the living crap out of them. There is no way in hell a dead rotting body could ever get up and…."

He was cut off as one of the body bags began to move.

The man became startled and grabbed a scalpel to defend himself. He edged towards the body bag and slowly opened it up. Inside was a young boy, maybe no more than 8 years old and he was groaning, trying to get up from the bag.

"Hey kid, you feel alright?" the man asked, it was rare but possible that some people woke up after being in a death like state or they were temporarily dead. But this kid was odd, he should have been dead. It was almost guaranteed with his wounds.

The boy was extraordinarily pale and dark blue veins were popping from his neck. His lips were bleeding and he was shaking his head violently as he snarled.

"Kid, settle down, I don't want you to harm yourself," the man said as he grabbed the boy by the arm.

Big mistake…

The boy shrieked at him and tackled him to the floor who tried to rip off the protective gearing all over the man's body.

But the man was physically stronger than the boy, so he easily threw the kid off and tried to rush to the door. His attempt was futile as he realised what was happening around him.

All the body bags began to rip open and most of the bodies that had been dumped around on the tables and the floor began rising from their spots. They all moaned and snarled, most likely woken up by the noise of the boy shrieking, and they all noticed the man who was edging his way quietly to the door, although a couple of walking bodies were obstructing his path.

"Okay, guys. Settle down now. There's no reason to get violent. You've all just woken up after being labelled dead a few minutes ago and…," the man began, never finishing what he was going to say.

The door to the morgue was closed, and most of the sound inside couldn't be heard from the outside, but if someone were to focus their hearing for a couple of moments, they would hear the muffled screams of terror of a man who was dealing with a fate far worse than death.

**15 minutes later**

The other man who had left walked down the stairs and opened the door, only to be grabbed by the legs and pulled into the room screaming. The scream continued for a few seconds before it stopped with a gurgle as the sound of flesh being ripped apart and moaning came out from the crowded morgue.

The corpses, one by one, began to notice the open door and decided to follow a lone corpse that had decided to walk out and up the stairs.

As the corpses walked into a hallway, people screamed as they began to run the other direction, shoving each other and knocking several people to the floor as they attempted to escape. The crowd of shambling corpses continued to advance forward, their bodies decaying rapidly, skin peeling off, eyes falling out and the occasional limb being ripped off from all the bumping that the corpses did in the small amount of space.

The people who had fallen over were quickly devoured by the crowd of the undead, left ripped apart on the floor; those with their brains intact would soon rise and join their brethren.

**Outside the hospital, present time**

Sakura ran to the hospital and placed a hand over her mouth in horror as she saw some smoke rise from the hospital. The alarms inside were blaring and people were running out of the main entrance screaming.

As the last of the people got out, Sakura ran up to the door and rushed inside. She looked around and noticed papers, glass and equipment lying everywhere in the main room that was connected with the receptionist's office. She searched the main room and checked the hallways, until she spotted a lone figure come out from one the rooms.

As Sakura took slow steps forward, she noticed the person start stumbling around. The person looked injured, but Sakura was still hesitant to rush forward to help.

"Hey, are you okay?" Sakura shouted out, getting the person's attention.

The figure began stumbling towards Sakura, groaning and hissing.

"Is there anyone else in here besides you?" Sakura asked once again, as she slowly began to back off and start heading towards the door. The way the person walked towards her greatly unsettled her and she felt like something was off about the person.

As Sakura came out from the halfway and into the main room, the figure gave out a bloodcurdling shriek and dashed towards Sakura, who had run straight for the door, pulling it open and slamming it shut.

Tears ran down from the shock she had received as she tried to catch her breath. Thank kami that the door was pulled open from the inside, not pushed.

As Sakura looked up at the person, she gasped.

It was a boy about her age who would have looked quite handsome with his black eyes and brown hair…if only he wasn't missing his face, his neck and his hand.

Blood was drenched all over the teenager's body and the screaming continued as she realised that more of those…things… were approaching the door, banging on it furiously. They were definitely not human, well, not anymore that is.

She tensed as she heard cracking sounds and realised that the durable glassed doors was slowly cracking and bending. Those things inside were incredibly strong in numbers.

She knew that she wasn't safe at all where she was standing so she jumped up to the rooftops of one the buildings nearby, feeling a lot safer.

She watched as the power in the hospital shut down and could hear faint screams mixed with a large amount of snarling, hissing and groaning.

She watched horrified as a man jumped from the window, snapping his neck as he landed on his head and laid still on the floor, blood leaking from his orifices.

An explosion from the hospital shook the building Sakura was on. A large plume of dark smoke rose from the left hand side of the hospital; flames licked the outer walls as it jumped out from the large hole in the side of the building. She noticed several people and the infected hopping out from the hole.

The hospital had been taken over.

Sakura narrowed her eyes as she turned and headed towards her new intended destination, the Hokage's Office.

**Moments later, inside the Hokage's Office**

As Sakura opened the window of the Hokage's Office and jumped inside, she noticed Kakashi and Naruto standing in front of Tsunade's desk.

"Shishou! We have a serious emergency at the hospital!" Sakura cried as she ran over to the other members of Team 7.

"I know," Tsunade replied, rubbing her temples, "It's why I called Naruto and Kakashi into my office."

"Wait, why?" Sakura asked as she glanced at the two before something clicked in her mind and she looked horrified, "No! You can't send those two in there! It's been overrun by the infected!"

Kakashi put up his hand, gesturing Sakura to calm down, "Sakura, we'll be fine."

Sakura crossed her arms and huffed, "If you two are going, then I'm going with you!"

Tsunade smacked her fist down, "No, Sakura! Naruto and Kakashi are the most suitable for this task as both can fight without coming into contact with those things inside the hospital. Kakashi has many tricks up his sleeve that can distance himself from the enemy and Naruto can use his Kage Bunshin to attack safely. You on the other-hand are mostly a close-range fighter and you have the greatest risk of being bitten by these creatures."

Sakura wasn't happy with the answer, "But why these two though? Couldn't you have gotten someone else?"

Tsunade sighed and looked at Sakura, "Sakura, everyone else is too busy trying to evacuate the civilians or set up internal defences, trying to block off and obstruct as many routes as possible from the hospital. Konoha is at Stage 5 and we can't afford to spread our forces unevenly. These two were the only ones who were on standby."

Sakura nodded grimly at this. There were 5 stages to Konoha's Emergency system, Level 5 being the worst. The Konoha Invasion by Otogakure and Sunagakure was only a Level 3. Level 5 meant massive amounts of damage and death was to be expected and Konoha would soon be abandoned. Once the place was evacuated under a specific amount of time, the powerful explosive seals placed around the village would be activated, decimating the village, only the Hokage can activate this.

"But still," Sakura began, as Tsunade glared at her, frustrated by her stubbornness, "I think I should go in there with the two because they'll definitely need someone who knows the layout of the hospital like the back of their hand. Every second wasted trying to locate something could mean the potential death of a survivor. I don't think we can afford that, can we, Shisou?

Tsunade couldn't help but smile. _'Damn you, Sakura, hiding your true reasons behind your reasonable justifications, as usual.'_

"Fine, Sakura. But I expect you to only engage the enemy if Naruto and Kakashi are unable to protect you," Tsunade ordered as all three bowed and ran off to the hospital.

Tsunade sat in a position to brood, much like how the Last Uchiha once did. _'I wonder how badly the other nations will be hit by this outbreak. We're not the only ones to see these things in our borders. I just hope that the other nations have created a plan to eradicate the infected and the black figures before they can cause even more destruction.'_

**Back at the Hospital**

Kakashi, Sakura and Naruto were standing on the rooftop of the Hospital, a locked door in front of them.

The rainclouds from earlier before had started to pour down heavily on Konoha, thunder and lightning cracking overhead.

The three stood as the rain drenched their clothing, matting their hair down and making their clothes stick.

Naruto sighed, "Well, here it goes."

And then he slowly turned the door handle.

**(X)+++(X)**

**Another chapter done, I realised that the lack of words in this story won't attract many people, so I've decided to update it again. Anyway review please because I want to see what kind of feedback I'm getting from this fic. See you next chapter!**


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